[CQ-Contest] Radio as Carry-On Luggage?

[Eric Hilding]

On Wed, 16 Aug 2006, Bob, W5OV, wrote:

 > Rick is on the right track.

Tnx, but I'm not too thrilled hearing about others having items 
stolen.  You would think with "tightened security", that all our stuff 
would be much safer.

Maybe the following will help?

When Mike, K9AJ & I activated IOTA NA-178 last February, we went by 
chartered helicopter so TSA was not an issue.  However, the Farallon Refuge 
Manager wanted a complete detailed Cargo Manifest of everything we were 
bringing to the Island ("Sensitive Wildlife Refuge"), including the size 
and weight of each container ;-(

I was still working on "The Mother of All Cargo Manifests" the afternoon 
before we were to leave, and fortunately Rusty, W6OAT, picked Mike up from 
the SF Airport for me 'cuz I was still QRL with the Manifest.  It reached 
the point of having to "ballpark" a few things and I emailed it off to her 
99.9% complete and headed up to rendezvous with Mike at the NCCC meeting.

I still consider it a "Miracle" that we got almost all this stuff plus 4 
people (including the Pilot & a Solar System Engineer we were transporting 
to the Island into one Bell Jet Ranger.  It was very "cozy" :-)  A few 
items I had shuffled onto the separate ARIS helo we also had to pay for 
that was hauling FWS equipment (yeah, it was a very expensive IOTA trip).

So I just remembered this, and am wondering now if using a very formal 
cargo manifest (and putting a copy of the entire thing inside EACH piece of 
luggage...carry-on or checked) might be useful for the Commercial 
route?  For us, the manifest was an expedient way to find stuff quickly as 
all the main containers were numbered and cross-referenced.

I can see two things here:

1. A comprehensive manifest inside every bag tells the TSA and airline 
baggage folks that we know exactly what we have and expect to see it arrive 
on the destination end.  Or,

2. It, umh, could act as a quicklist for the unscrupulous to "Cherry Pick" 
items out of the checked baggage?

Here is a copy of what we used if the format might be useful to anyone else 
(originally done in Excel):

http://www.k6vva.com/iota/na178/na178_cargomanifest1final_021306.pdf

Although they stack real nicely for hauling around on a fold-up handi-cart, 
you could not use the Plastic Sterilite containers when going via 
Commercial airlines!!!  It's still hard to believe we got all that stuff 
crammed into the helo with the 4 of us.

Yeah, I think I'm going to take the same approach now for any Commercial 
flight travel, put a complete copy in each bag and also email a .pdf of the 
Cargo Manifest to TSA. in advance :-)  If anything turns up missing, I'll 
sue 'em.

FYI & 73...

Rick, K6VVA